“I was all right, for a while. I  could smile for a while.”—Roy Orbison

ROLLING FORK—For the first time in all the years I have been here, I missed a local festival Saturday, but I did manage to spend about an hour with Roy Orbison. And that’s a pretty good trick, I guess, since he’s  dead.

I spent just lots and lots of time driving up and down the road last weekend

On Friday, I drove to Greenville to attend the memorial service for one of the last true newspaper professionals in the Delta and one special lady, Sallie Gresham. My daughter and Sallie’s family had arrived from Florida the previous day and it was as nice a service as any such thing can be at that city’s lovely St. James Episcopal Church.

The Delta Democrat Times might as well have been another of Sallie’s children, as she loved and nurtured it for the more than 40 years she was there. To simply view it today is to at least begin to understand how much she is missed.

And she was my friend. To me and my family, Sallie was family, so death be not proud.

And gas pump don’t either, because (very) early Saturday morning, Logan and I were off to my niece Anna’s graduation from Belhaven College in Jackson. A sweet kid, Anna loves her Uncle Ray and is my sister Lisa’s girl. And as I tell the child at every opportunity, I am so proud of her having overcome both those disabilities.

I am not sure why, but Belhaven does not hold its graduation services anywhere on the grounds of the college, but rather at a gigantic Methodist Church way, way out on Old Canton Road. This fact, combined with  the other that Anna’s graduation began at 9:30 a.m., regrettably made it necessary for me to, shall we say “compromise” a number of the laws of the State of Mississippi as they relate to speed of an automobile. For the record, it is possible to navigate 220 around Jackson at 85 miles per hour, but I do not recommend it.

The commencement speaker to the just under 200 kids receiving their bachelor’s degrees was an apparently quite well-to-do chap named Robert C. Doll Jr., who is the Chief Equity Strategist and Senior Portfolio Manager at BlackRock, which happens to be the world’s largest asset management firm.

You’d think that a bunch of grads heading out into the workforce in this financial climate could use a little sound economic advice, but instead, Mr. Doll spent most of his little bit too long speech talking about Jesus.

Perhaps that too, shall prove helpful.

Then since the church is in northwest Jackson and the airport is in southwest Jackson, some more creative driving was required to get Logan there in time for her to catch a flight at noon. Have I wailed at the moon lately about how many God-awful drivers there are in this state? Get in the fast lane and slow down — good idea.

I was a tired old newspaper hack when I rolled back into town Saturday afternoon and just wasn’t feeling very festive. But that was before Roy Orbison and I got together.

PBS’ longtime “Austin City Limits” show, on what would have been his 75th birthday, re-ran a 1982 live concert by the highly-underrated and transformational singer/guitarist Roy Orbison, and it was as great as I remembered its being the first time I saw it.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Roy Orbison, your musical education is lacking. The “other” Man in Black (You are familiar with Johnny Cash, I sincerely hope.), wrote and sang some remarkable songs (“Only the Lonely,” “Crying,” “Oh, Pretty Woman) with a baritone voice which music historians maintain had a three or four octave range.

You’ll believe that if you try to sing-along to an Orbsion song; there are notes that you not going to get to, and notes that will actually hurt you when you try.

Rolling Stone ranked him #13 on its list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.

From beneath his ever present black shades, Roy Orbison’s crooning is as soulful as a cemetery at midnight, as sweet as honey dew vine water, and he laid the groundwork for much and many who followed.

So in one weekend, I said goodbye to one old friend and enjoyed seeing once more another one, and I hugged family and I got to drive fast to cap it all off, so while I’m sorry I missed the festival, I think neither the town nor I will be scarred.